Formula One news

Honda looking for more pace

Honda began the on-track preparations for its home Grand Prix at the Fuji Speedway in Japan today with race drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button completing 143 laps of the 4.563km (2.835-mile) circuit. 

Their best laps were separated by just 0.016s during the opening 1.5-hour session and placed them in 16th and 17th positions. Rubens was the faster of the two, completing five more laps than Jenson. Lap times fell quickly in the afternoon as the grip levels increased. Both drivers improved their lap times significantly, with Rubens setting a best time of 1:19.258s which placed him 15th overall. Jenson was not able to achieve such a good balance on new tyres and finished the session 0.7s slower than his team-mate.

"Just like last year, we have had a dry first day of practice and by the end of the afternoon we were able to achieve a reasonable balance with the car on new tyres," said Barrichello. "The weather forecast for the weekend looks interesting so we need to take a close look at that. However if it stays dry, then I believe we have a chance to progress to the second qualifying session." 

Jenson Button commented, "We were able to make progress on the balance of the car on older tyres by the end of the afternoon session, however achieving a good balance was our main problem throughout the day. On new tyres at the end of the second session, I just had very little grip and it felt like the tyres were graining immediately. We will have to look at the reasons for this ahead of qualifying tomorrow."

Head of engineering Steve Clark added, "Our focus for today was an evaluation of downforce levels and set-up with the RA108 in addition to gathering information on the tyres. We have had two productive sessions to prepare for the race, although our position on the timesheets does not necessarily reflect the level of good work that we have achieved."

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